Samuel Beckett

POEMS
1930-1989

1930-1989

2010

CONTENTS

19301939

12
26
32
36
44
50
54
56
58
60
62
64
66
70
72

Whoroscope
For Future Reference
Return to the Vestry
Casket of Pralinen for a Daughter of a Dissipated Mandarin
Text
Hell Crane to Starling
Sonnet (At last I find...)
Calvary by Night
From the Only Poet to a Shining Whore
Yoke of Liberty
Home Olga
Gnome
Cascando
Ooftish
Dieppe
ECHO'S BONES

74
76
84
88
90
92
98
102
108
114
118

The Vulture
Enueg I
Enueg II
Alba
Dortmunder
Sanies I
Sanies II
Serena I
Serena II
Serena III
Malacoda

19301939

( ...)

13
27
33
37
45
51
55
57
59
61
63
65
67
71
73

I
II

I
II
I
II
III

75
77
85
89
91
93
99
103
109
115
119

122
124

Da Tagte Es
Echo's Bones

126
128
130
132
134
136
138
140
142
144
148

elles viennent...
elle l'acte calme...
tre l sans mchoires sans dents...
Ascension
La Mouche
musique de l'indiffrence...
bois seul...
ainsi a-t-on beau...
Rue de Vaugirard
Arnes de Lutce
jusque dans la caverne ciel et sol...
19451949

150
152
154
156
15 8
160
162
164

Saint-L
Antipepsis
bon bon il est un pays...
Mort de A.D.
vive morte ma seule saison...
je suis ce cours de sable qui glisse...
que ferais-je sans ce monde...
je voudrais que mon amour meure...
1953

166

Tailpiece
19621964

168

Song

170

The Downs
19741979

176

Pome 1974



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19451949
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165

1953

167

19621964

169
171

19741979
1974

177

178
182
188
190

Something there
dread nay
Roundelay
Thither
MIRLITONNADES

192
192
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196
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208
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208
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210

en face...
rentrer...
somme toute...
fin fond du nant...
silence tel que ce qui fut...
coute-les...
lueurs lisires...
imagine si ceci...
d'abord...
flux cause...
samedi rpit...
chaque jour envie...
nuit qui fais tant...
rien nul...
peine bien men...
ce qu'ont les yeux...
ce qu'a de pis...
ne manquez pas Tanger...
plus loin un autre commmore...
ne manquez pas Stuttgart...
vieil aller...
fous qui disiez...
pas pas...
rve...
morte parmi...
d'o...
mots survivants...
fleuves et ocans...
de pied ferme...
sitt sorti de 1 ' ermitage...

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191

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210
210
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212
212
212
212
214
214
214
214

instant de s ' entendre dire...

la nuit venue o me allait...
pas davantage...
son ombre une nuit...
noire sur...
comme au...
c'est Fheure...
bout de songes un bouquin...
le nain nonagnaire...
ne verra t'il jamais...
qu' lever la tte...
par une faille dans l'inexistence...

214

lui...

216

one dead of night...

19871989

218
220
222

Brief Dream
Go where never before
Comment dire

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19871989

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19301939

WHOROSCOPE
What's that?
An egg?
By the brothers Boot it stinks fresh.
Give it to Gillot
Galileo how are you
and his consecutive thirds!
The vile old Copernican lead-swinging
son of a sutler!
We're moving he said we're off- Porca Madonna!
the way a boatswain would be, or a sack-of-potatoey
charging Pretender
10 That's not moving, that's moving.
What's that?
A little green fry or a mushroomy one?
Two lashed ovaries with prostisciutto?
How long did she womb it, the feathery one?
Three days and four nights?
Give it to Gillot
Faulhaber, Beeckman and Peter the Red,

12

19301939

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13

come now in the cloudy avalanche or Gassendi 's sun-red

crystally cloud
and I'll pebble you all your hen-and-a-half ones

20 or I'll pebble a lens under the quilt in the midst of day.

To think he was my own brother, Peter the Bruiser,
and not a syllogism out of him
no more than if Pa were still in it.
Hey! Pass over those coppers,
sweet milled sweat of my burning liver!
Them were the days I sat in the hot-cupboard throwing
Jesuits out of the skylight.
Who's that? Hals?
Let him wait.
My squinty doaty!
30 I hid and you sook.
And Francine my precious fruit of a house-and-parlour
foetus!
What an exfoliation!
Her little grey flayed epidermis and scarlet tonsils!
My one child
scourged by a fever to stagnant murky blood
blood!
Oh Harvey beloved
how shall the red and white, the many in the few,
(dear bloodswirling Harvey)

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40 eddy through that cracked beater?

And the fourth Henry came to the crypt of the arrow.
What's that?
How long?
Sit on it.
A wind of evil flung my despair of ease
against the sharp spires of the one
lady:
not once or twice but...
(Kip of Christ hatch it!)
50 in one sun's drowning
(Jesuitasters please copy).
So on with the silk hose over the knitted, and the morbid
leather
what am I saying! the gentle canvas
and away to Ancona on the bright Adriatic,
and farewell for a space to the yellow key of the
Rosicrucians.
They don't know what the master of them that do did,
that the nose is touched by the kiss of all foul and sweet air,
and the drums, and the throne of the faecal inlet,
and the eyes by its zig-zags.
60 So we drink Him and eat Him
and the watery Beaune and the stale cubes of Hovis
because He can jig
as near or as far from His Jigging Self
and as sad or lively as the chalice or the tray asks.
16

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How's that, Antonio?

In the name of Bacon will you chicken me up that egg.
Shall I swallow cave-phantoms?
Anna Maria!
She reads Moses and says her love is crucified.
70 Leider! Leider! She bloomed and withered,
a pale abusive parakeet in a mainstreet window.
No I believe every word of it I assure you
Fallor, ergo sum!
The coy old frleur!
He toi le 'd and legge'd
and he buttoned on his redemptorist waistcoat.
No matter, let it pass.
I'm a bold boy I know
so I'm not my son
80 (even if I were a concierge)
nor Joachim my father's
but the chip of a perfect block that's neither old nor new,
the lonely petal of a great high bright rose.
Are you ripe at last,
my slim pale double-breasted turd?
How rich she smells,
this abortion of a fledgling!
I will eat it with a fish fork.
White and yolk and feathers.

18

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70 Leider! Leider!* ,
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Fallor, ergo sum**!
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80 ( )

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90 Then I will rise and move moving

toward Rahab of the snows,
the murdering matinal pope-confessed amazon,
Christina the ripper.
Oh Weulles spare the blood of a Frank
Who has climbed the bitter steps,
(Ren du Perron...!)
and grant me my second
starless inscrutable hour.
1930

NOTES BY THE AUTHOR

Ren Descartes, Seigneur du Perron, liked his omelette made of

eggs hatched from eight to ten days; shorter or longer under the
hen and the result, he says, is disgusting.
He kept his own birthday to himself so that no astrologer could
cast his nativity.
The shuttle of a ripening egg combs the warp of his days.

3 In 1640 the brothers Boot refuted Aristotle in Dublin.

4 Descartes passed on the easier problems in analytical geometry
to his valet Gillot.
-10 Refer to his contempt for Galileo Jr., (whom he confused
with the more musical Galileo Sr.), and to his expedient sophistry
concerning the movement of the earth.
20

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1930

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17 He solved problems submitted by these mathematicians.

2126 The attempt at swindling on the part of his elder brother
Pierre de la Bretaillire - The money he received as a soldier.
27 Franz Hals.
2930 As a child he played with a little cross-eyed girl.
3135 His daughter died of scarlet fever at the age of six.
37-40 Honoured Harvey for his discovery of the circulation of
the blood, but would not admit that he had explained the motion
of the heart.
41 The heart of Henri IV was received at the Jesuit college of La
Flche while Descartes was still a student there.
4353 His visions and pilgrimage to Loretto.
5665 His Eucharistie sophistry, in reply to the Jansenist
Antoine Arnauld, who challenged him to reconcile his doctrine
of matter with his doctrine of transubstantiation.

68 Schurmann, the Dutch blue-stocking, a pious pupil of Vot,

the adversary of Descartes.
7376 Saint Augustine has a revelation in the shrubbery and
reads Saint Paul.

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7783 He proves God by exhaustion.

9193 Christina, queen of Sweden. At Stockholm, in November,
she required Descartes, who had remained in bed till midday all
his life, to be with her at five o'clock in the morning.
94 Weulles, a Peripatetic Dutch physician at the Swedish court,
and an enemy of Descartes.

7783 .
9193 , . , ,
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FOR FUTURE REFERENCE

My cherished chemist friend
lured me aloofly
down from the cornice
into the basement
and there:
drew bottles of acid and alkali out of his breast
to a colourscale accompaniment
(mad dumbells spare me!)
fiddling deft and expert
with the doubled jointed nutcrackers of the
hen's ovaries
But I stilled my cringing
and smote him
yes oh my strength!
smashed
mashed
(peace my incisors!)
flayed and crushed him
with a ready are you steady
cuff-discharge.
But did I?
26


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And then the bright waters

beneath the broad board
the trembling blade of the streamlined divers
and down to our waiting
to my enforced buoyancy
came floating the words of
the Mutilator
and the work of his fmgerjoints:
observe gentlemen one of
the consequences of the displacement of
(click)!
the muncher.
The hair shall be grey
above the left temple
the hair shall be grey there
abracadabra!
sweet wedge of birds faithless!
God blast you yes it is we see
God bless you professor
we can't clap or we'd sink
three cheers for the perhaps pitiful professor
next per shaving? next per sh
?
Well of all the !
that little bullet-headed bristle-cropped
red-faced rat of a pure mathematician
that I thought was experimenting with barbed
wire in
the Punjab
up he comes surging to the landing steps
and tells me I'm putting no guts in my kick.
Like this he says like this.
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Well I just swam out nimbly

blushing and hopeless
with the little swift strokes that I like and
Whoops!
over the stream and the tall green bank
in a strong shallow arch
and his face all twisted calm and patient
and the board ledge doing its best to illustrate
Bruno's identification of contraries
into the water or on to the stones?
No matter at all he can't come back
from far bay or stony ground
yes here he is
(he must have come under)
for the second edition
coming
house innings set half or anything...
if he can't come twice
or forgets his lesson
or breaks his leg
he might forget me
they all might....!
so the snowy floor of the parrot's cell
burning at dawn
the palaiate of my strange mouth.



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RETURN TO THE VESTRY

Lover
off with your braces
Slouch in unbuttoned ease
fill a sack take a porter climb a mountain
as he did
the deaf conceited lecherous laypriest
the vindictive old sausage-sprinkler
dirt in a dirt floor
in a chapel barn
by a stifled stream.
Zoroaster
politely factorized
and a hay-rake
guarantee his siesta
except during the harvest season when the
latter is removed.
I may be mistaken
but
tears covering all risks
I took a time exposure
and wept into my hat.
So
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swell the cairn and spill the doings

Burn sulphur!
Juniper flame to a swirl of ashes!
Drown the Singer
I'm done with stitch anguish.
Now a compress of wormwood and verbena
on my fiery buttocks.
Smother the place in Cerebos it stinks of
breeding.
Here's the mange of beauty in a corporation
bucket!
Shovel it into the winds!
Loose the sparrows.
Pluck that pigeon she dribbles fertility.
Mumps and a orchid to Frulein Miranda.
Gentle Anteros
dark and dispassionate
come a grave snake with peace to my quarry
and choke my regret
noble Anteros
and coil at the door of my quarry tomb
and span its rim with a luminous awning
shallow and dim
as a grey tilt of silk
filtering sadly
the weary triumph of morning.
Or mock a duller impurity.


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CASKET OF PRALINEN FOR

A DAUGHTER OF A DISSIPATED MANDARIN
Is he long enough in the leg?
Gibuthis faice...
Oh me little timid Rosinette
isn't it Bartholo, synthetic grey cat, regal
candle?
Keep Thyrsis for your morning ones.
Hold your head well over the letter darling
or they'll fall on the blotting.
Will you ever forget that soupe arrose
on the first of the first,
spoonfeeding the weeping gladiator
renewing our baptismal vows
and dawn cracking all along the line
slobbery assumption of the innocents
two Irish in one God.
Radiant lemon-whiskered Christ
and you obliging porte-phallie-portfolio
and blood-faced Tom
disbelieving
in the Closerie cocktail that is my
36



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and of course John the bright boy of the

class
swallowing an apostolic spit
THE BULLIEST FEED IN 4STORY
if the boy scouts hadn't booked a trough
for the eleventh's eleventh eleven years
after.
Now me boy
take a hitch in your lyrical loinstring.
What is this that is more
than the anguish of Beauty,
this gale of pain that was not prepared
in the caves of her eyes?
Is it enough
a stitch in the hem of the garment of God?
To-night her gaze would be less
than a lark's barred sunlight.
Oh I am ashamed
of all clumsy artistry
I am ashamed of presuming
to arrange words
of everything but the ingenuous fibres
that suffer honestly.
Fool! Do you hope to untangle
The knot of God's pain?
38

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Melancholy Christ that was a soft one!

Oh yes I think that was perhaps just a very
little
inclined to be rather too self-conscious.
Schluss!
Now ladies and gents
a chocolate-coated hiccough to our old
friend.
Put on your hats and sit easy.
Oh beauty!
oh thou predatory evacuation,
from the bowels of my regret readily affected
by the assimilation of a purging gobbet
from my memory's involuntary vomit violently projected,
oh beauty!
oh innocent and spluttering beautiful!
What price the Balbec express?
Albion Albion mourn for him mourn
thy cockerup Willy the idiot boy
the portly scullion's codpiece.
Now who'll discover in Mantegna's
butchery stout foreshortened Saviour
recognitions of transcendent
horse-power?
Sheep he wrote the very much doubting
genial illegible landscape gardener.

40

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Schluss*!

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41

Gloucester's no bimbo
and he's in Limbo
so all's well with the gorgonzola cheese of human
kindness.
Though the swine were slaughtered
beneath the waves
not far from the firm sand
they're gone they're gone
my Brussels Braut!

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Braut*!

* (.).

TEXT
Miserere oh colon
oh passionate ilium
and Frances the cook in the study mourning
an abstract belly
instead of the writhing asparagus-plumer
smashed on delivery
by the most indifferential calculus
that never came out
or ever disdressed
a redknuckled slut of a Paduan Virtue.

Show that plate here to your bedfruit

spent baby
and take a good swig
at our buxom calabash.
There's more than bandit Glaxo
underneath me maternity toga.
So she sags and here's the other.
That's the real export or I'm a Jungfrau.
Now wipe your moustache and hand us the vaseline.

44


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45

Open Thou my lips

and
(if one dare make a suggestion)
Thine eye of skyflesh.
Am I a token of Godcraft?
The masterpiece of a scourged apprentice?
Where is my hippopot's cedar tail?
and belly muscles?
Shall I cease to lament
being not as the flashsneezing
non-suppliant airtight alligator?
Not so but perhaps
at the sight and the sound of
a screechy flatfooted Tuscany peacock's
Strauss fandango and recitative
not forgetting
he stinks eternal.
Alas my scorned packthread!
No blade has smoothed the furrowed cheeks
that my tears corrode.
My varicose veins take my kneeling thoughts
from the piteous pelican.
Quick tip losers narcissistic inverts.
Twice I parted two crawlers
dribbling their not connubial strangles
in Arcadia of all places.
46

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Believe me Miss Ops

swan flame or shower of gold
it's one to ten at the time
(no offence to your noble deathjerks)
I know I was at it seven...
the bitch she's blinded me!
Manto me dear
and iced sherbet and me blood's a solid.
We are proud in our pain
our life was not blind.
Worms breed in their red tears
as they slouch by unnamed
scorned by the black ferry
despairing of death
who shall not scour in swift joy
the bright hill's girdle
nor tremble with the dark pride of torture
and the bitter dignity of an ingenious damnation.
Lo-Ruhama Lo-Ruhama
pity is quick with death.
Presumptuous passionate fool come now
to the sad maimed shades
and stand cold
on the cold moon.

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HELL CRANE TO STARLING

Oholiba charm of my eyes
there is a cave above Tsoar
and a Spanish donkey there.
You needn't bring wine to that non-relation.

And he won't know

who changed his name
when Jehovah sprained the seam of his haunch
in Peniel in Peniel
after he's sent on the thirty camels
suckling for dear death
and so many fillies
that I don't want log tablets.
Mister Jacobson mister Hippolitus-in-hell Jacobson
we all know
how you tried to rejoin your da.
Bilha always blabs.

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Because Benoni skirted aftercrop

of my aching loins
you'll never see him
reddening the wall in two dimensions
and if you did
you might spare the postage to Chaldea.
But there's a bloody fine ass
lepping with stout and impure de pommes
in the hill above Tsoar.

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SONNET
At last I find in my confused soul,
Dark with the dark flame of the cypresses,
The certitude that I cannot be whole,
Consummate, finally achieved, unless
I be consumed and fused in the white heat
Of her sad finite essence, so that none
Shall sever us who are at last complete
Eternally, irrevocably one,
One with the birdless, cloudless, colourless skies,
One with the bright purity of the fire
Of which we are and for which we must die
A rapturous strange death and be entire,
Like syzygetic stars, supernly bright,
Conjoined in One and in the Infinit!
1932

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1932

55

CALVARY BY NIGHT
the water
the waste of water
in the womb of water
an pansy leaps
rocket of bloom flare flower of night wilt for me
on the breasts of the water it has closed it has made
an act of floral presence on the water
the tranquil act of its cycle on the waste
from the spouting forth
to the re-enwombing
an untroubled bow of petal and fragrance
kingfisher abated
drowned for me
Lamb of my insustenance
till the clamour of a blue flower
beat on the walls of the womb of
the waste of
the water

56

57

FROM THE ONLY POET

TO A SHINING WHORE
For Henry Crowder to sing.
Rahab of the holy battlements,
bright dripping shaft
in the bright bright patient
pearl-brow dawn-dusk lover of the sun.
Puttanina mia!
You hid them happy in the high flax,
pale before the fords
of Jordan, and the dry red waters,
and you lowered a pledge
of scarlet hemp.
Oh radiant, oh angry, oh Beatrice,
she foul with the victory
of the bloodless fingers
and proud, and you, Beatrice, mother, sister,
daughter, beloved,
fierce pale flame
of doubt, and God's sorrow,
and my sorrow.

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59

YOKE OF LIBERTY
The lips of her desire are grey
and parted like a silk loop
threatening
a slight wanton wound.
She preys wearily
on sensitive wild things
proud to be torn
by the grave crouch of her beauty.
But she will die and her snare
tendered so patiently
to my tamed watchful sorrow
will break and hang
in a pitiful crescent.

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HOME OLGA
J might be made sit up for a jade of hope (and exile,
don't you know)
And Jesus and Jesuits juggemauted in the haemorrhoidal isle,
Modo et forma anal maiden, giggling to death in
stomacho.
for the erythrite of love and silence and the sweet
noo style,
Swoops and loops of love and silence in the eye of
the sun and view of the mew,
Juvante Jah and a Jain or two and the tip of a
friendly yiddophile.
for an opal of faith and cunning winking adieu, adieu, adieu.
Yesterday shall be tomorrow, riddle me that my
rapparee.
Che sar sar ehe fu, there's more than Homer knows how to spew,
Exempli gratia: ecce himself and the pickthank agnus
e.o.o.e.
1932

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******
....
1932

* {).
** (). Deo juvante .
*** , , , (um).
**** , (). . homo .
***** ().
****** (). . erreur ou
omission excepte.
63

GNOME
Spend the years of learning squandering
Courage for the years of wandering
Through a world politely turning
From the loutishness of learning.
1934

64


.
, ,
,
.
1934

65

CASCANDO
1
why not merely the despaired of
occasion of
wordshed
is it not better abort than be barren
the hours after you are gone are so leaden
they will always start dragging too soon
the grapples clawing blindly the bed of want
bringing up the bones the old loves
sockets filled once with eyes like yours
all always is it better too soon than never
the black want splashing their faces
saying again nine days never floated the loved
nor nine months
nor nine lives

saying again
if you do not teach me I shall not learn
66

67

saying again there is a last

even of last times
last times of begging
last times of loving
of knowing not knowing pretending
a last even of last times of saying
if you do not love me I shall not be loved
if I do not love you I shall not love
the churn of stale words in the heart again
love love love thud of the old plunger
pestling the unalterable
whey of words
terrified again
of not loving
of loving and not you
of being loved and not by you
of knowing not knowing pretending
pretending
I and all the others that will love you
if they love you
3
unless they love you
1936

3

1936

OOFTISH
offer it up plank it down
Golgotha was only the potegg
cancer angina it is all one to us
cough up your T.B. don't be stingy
no trifle is too trifling not even a thrombus
anything venereal is especially welcome
that old toga in the mothballs
don't be sentimental you won't be wanting it again
send it along we'll put it in the pot with the rest
with your love requited and unrequited
the things taken too late the things taken too soon
the spirit aching bullock's scrotum
you won't cure it you won't endure it
it is you it equals you any fool has to pity you
so parcel up the whole issue and send it along
the whole misery diagnosed undiagnosed
misdiagnosed
get your friends to do the same we'll make use of it
we'll make sense of it we'll put it in the pot with the
rest
it all boils down to blood of lamb
1938

70

1938

71

DIEPPE
encore le dernier reflux
le galet mort
le demi-tour puis les pas
vers les vieilles lumires

72

73

ECHO'S BONES

THE VULTURE
dragging his hunger through the sky
of my skull shell of sky and earth
stooping to the prone who must
soon take up their life and walk
mocked by a tissue that may not serve
till hunger earth and sky be offal.

74

,

, ,
.

* .
75

ENUEGI
Exeo in a spasm
tired of my darling's red sputum
from the Portobello Private Nursing Home
its secret things
and toil to the crest of the surge of the steep
perilous bridge
and lapse down blankly under the scream of the
hoarding
round the bright stiff banner of the hoarding
into a black west
throttled with clouds.
Above the mansions the algum-trees
the mountains
my skull sullenly
clot of anger
skewered aloft strangled in the cang of the wind
bites like a dog against its chastisement.

76

 I
,
,
,
,

,
,

,
.
,
,


, ,
, .

* (.).
77

I trundle along rapidly now on my ruined feet

flush with the livid canal;
at Parnell Bridge a dying barge
carrying a cargo of nails and timber
rocks itself softly in the foaming cloister of the
lock;
on the far bank a gang of down and outs would
seem to be mending a beam.
Then for miles only wind
and the weals creeping alongside on the water
and the world opening up to the south
across a travesty of champaign to the mountains
and the stillborn evening turning a filthy green
manuring the night fungus
and the mind annulled
wrecked in wind.
I splashed past a little wearish old man,
Democritus,
scuttling along between a crutch and a stick,
his stump caught up horribly, like a claw, under his
breech, smoking.
Then because a field on the left went up in a sudden
blaze
of shouting and urgent whistling and scarlet and
blue ganzies
I stopped and climbed the bank to see the game.
A child fidgeting at the gate called up:

78


;
,
,

;
, ,
.
,
, ,
, ,
,
, ,
,
, ,
.
,
,
,
, ,
, .
,

,
,
.
, ,
:
79

"Would we be let in Mister?"

"Certainly" I said "you would."
But, afraid, he set off down the road.
"Well" I called after him "why wouldn't you go on
in?"
"Oh" he said, knowingly,
"I was in that field before and I got put out."
Soon,
derelict,
as from a bush of gorse on fire in the mountain
after dark,
or, in Sumatra the jungle hymen,
the still flagrant rafflesia.
Next:
a lamentable family of grey verminous hens,
perishing out in the sunk field,
trembling, half asleep, against the closed door of a
shed,
with no means of roosting.
The great mushy toadstool,
green-black,
oozing up after me,
soaking up the tattered sky like an ink of pestilence,
in my skull the wind going fetid,
the water . . .
Next:
on the hill down from the Fox and Geese into
Chapelizod

80

 , , ?
, , .
, , .
, ,
?
, , ,
, .
,
,

,
, , ,
.
:
,
,
,
.
,
-,
,
,
,
...
:
--

81

a small malevolent goat, exiled on the road,

remotely pucking the gate of his field;
the Isolde Stores a great perturbation of sweaty
heroes,
in their Sunday best,
come hastening down for a pint of nepenthe or
moly or half and half
from watching the hurlers above in Kilmainham.

Blotches of doomed yellow in the pit of the Liffey;

the fingers of the ladders hooked over the parapet,
soliciting;
a slush of vigilant gulls in the grey spew of the
sewer.
Ah the banner
the banner of meat bleeding
on the silk of the seas and the arctic flowers
that do not exist.

 , ,
;
,
,
,
,
,

.
;
, ,
;

.
,

, ,
.

ENUEG II
world world world world
and the face grave
cloud against the evening
de morituris nihil nisi
and the face crumbling shyly
too late to darken the sky
blushing away into the evening
shuddering away like a gaffe
veronica mundi
veronica munda
give us a wipe for the love of Jesus
sweating like Judas
tired of dying
tired of policemen
feet in marmalade
perspiring profusely

84

 II



de morituris nihil nisi*

(.).
85

heart in marmalade
smoke more fruit
the old heart the old heart
breaking outside congress
doch I assure thee
lying on O'Connell Bridge
goggling at the tulips of the evening
the green tulips
shining round the corner like an anthrax
shining on Guinness's barges
the overtone the face
too late to righten the sky
doch doch I assure thee



,

doch
'






doch doch .

* (.).

ALBA
before morning you shall be here
and Dante and the Logos and all strata and mysteries
and the branded moon
beyond the white plane of music
that you shall establish here before morning
grave suave singing silk
stoop to the black firmament of areca
rain on the bamboos flower of smoke alley of
willows
who though you stoop with fingers of compassion
to endorse the dust
shall not add to your bounty
whose beauty shall be a sheet before me
a statement of itself drawn across the tempest of
emblems
so that there is no sun and no unveiling
and no host
only I and then the sheet
and bulk dead

89

DORTMUNDER
In the magic the Homer dusk
past the red spire of sanctuary
I null she royal hulk
hasten to the violet lamp to the thin K'in music of
the bawd.
She stands before me in the bright stall
sustaining the jade splinters
the scarred signaculum of purity quiet
the eyes the eyes black till the plagal east
shall resolve the long night phrase.
Then, as a scroll, folded,
and the glory of her dissolution enlarged
in me, Habbakuk, mard of all sinners.
Schopenhauer is dead, the bawd
puts her lute away.

90






.




.
, ,

, , .
,
.

91

SANIES I
all the livelong way this day of sweet showers from
Portrane on the seashore
Donabate sad swans of Turvey Swords
pounding along in three ratios like a sonata
like a Ritter with pommelled scrotum atra cura on the step
Botticelli from the fork down pestling the transmission
tires bleeding voiding zeep the highway
all heaven in the sphincter
the sphincter
mde now
potwalloping now through the promenaders
this trusty all-steel this super-real
bound for home like a good boy
where I was born with a pop with the green of the
larches

92

 I




atra cura




mde*

* (.).
** Mde (.).

93

ah to be back in the caul now with no trusts

no fingers no spoilt love
belting along in the meantime clutching the bike
the billows of the nubile the cere wrack
pot-valiant caulless waisted in rags hatless
for mamma papa chicken and ham
warm Grave too say the word
happy days snap the stem shed a tear
this day Spy Wednesday seven pentades past
oh the larches the pain drawn like a cork
the glans he took the day off up hill and down dale
with a ponderous fawn from the Liverpool London
and Globe
back the shadows lengthen the sycamores are sobbing
to roly-poly oh to me a spanking boy
buckets of fizz childbed is thirsty work
for the midwife he is gory
for the proud parent he washes down a gob of
gladness
for footsore Achates also he pants his pleasure
sparkling beestings for me
tired now hair ebbing gums ebbing ebbing home
good as gold now in the prime after a brief
prodigality
yea and suave
suave urbane beyond good and evil
biding my time without rancour you may take your
oath

!





, ,



!
!

95

distraught half-crooked courting the sneers of these

fauns these smart nymphs
clipped like a pederast as to one trouser-end
sucking in my bloated lantern behind a Wild
Woodbine
cinched to death in a filthy slicker
flinging the proud Swift forward breasting the swell
of Strmers
I see main verb at last
her whom alone in the accusative
I have dismounted to love
gliding towards me dauntless nautch-girl on the
face of the waters
dauntless daughter of desires in the old black and
flamingo
get along with you now take the six the seven the
eight or the little single-decker
take a bus for all I care walk cadge a lift
home to the cob of your web in Holies Street
and let the tiger go on smiling
in our hearts that funds ways home

SANIES II
there was a happy land
the American Bar
in Rue Mouffetard
there were red eggs there
I have a dirty I say henorrhoids
coming from the bath
the steam the delight the sherbet
the chagrin of the old skinnymalinks
slouching happy body
loose in my stinking old suit
sailing slouching up to Puvis the gauntlet of tulips
lash lash me with yaller tulips I will let down
my stinking old trousers
my love she sewed up the pockets alive the live-oh
she did she said that was better
spotless then within the brown rags gliding
frescoward free up the fjord of dyed eggs and
thongbells
I disappear don't you know into the local
the mackerel are at billiards there they are crying the scores
the Barfrau makes a big impression with her mighty bottom
98

 II











-

!

99

Dante and blissful Beatrice are there

prior to Vita Nuova
the balls splash no luck comrade
Gracieuse is there Belle-Belle down the drain
booted Percinet with his cobalt jowl
they are necking gobble-gobble
suck is not suck that alters
lo Alighieri has got off au revoir to all that
I break down quite in a titter of despite
hark
upon the saloon a terrible hush
a shiver convulses Madame de la Motte
it courses it peals down her collops
the great bottom foams into stillness
quick quick the cavaletto supplejacks for
mumbo-jumbo
vivas puellas mortui incurrrrrsant boves
oh subito subito ere she recover the cang bamboo
for bastinado
a bitter moon fessade la mode
oh Becky spare me I have done thee no wrong
spare me damn thee
spare me good Becky
call off thine adders Becky I will compensate thee in full
Lord have mercy upon
Christ have mercy upon us
Lord have mercy upon us




-

-

-

,
-
vivas puellas mortui incurrrrrsant boves*
! subito subito**


, ,






* (.).
** - (.).

SERENA I
without the grand old British Museum
Thaes and the Aretino
on the bosom of the Regent's Park the phlox
crackles under the thunder
scarlet beauty in our world dead fish adrift
all things full of gods
pressed down and bleeding
a weaver-bird is tangerine the harpy is past caring
the condor likewise in his mangy boa
they stare out across monkey-hill the elephants
Ireland
the light creeps down their old home canyon
sucks me aloof to that old reliable
the burning btm of George the drill
ah across the way a adder
broaches her rat
white as snow
in her dazzling oven strom of peristalsis
limae labor

102

 I


-

!



limae labor*
!

(.).
103

ah father father that art in heaven

I find me taking the Crystal Palace
for the Blessed Isles from Primrose Hill
alas I must be that kind of person
hence in Ken Wood who shall find me
my breath held in the midst of thickets
none but the most quarried lovers
I surprise me moved by the many a funnel hinged
for the obeisance to Tower Bridge
the viper's curtsy to and from the City
till in the dusk a lighter
blind with pride
tosses aside the scarf of the bascules
then in the grey hold of the ambulance
throbbing on the brink ebb of sighs
then I hug me below among the canaille
until a guttersnipe blast his cernd eyes
demanding 'ave I done with the Mirror
I stump off in a fearful rage under Married Men's
Quarters Bloody Tower
and afar off at all speed screw me up Wren's giant
bully
and curse the day caged panting on the platform
under the flaring urn
I was not born Defoe
but in Ken Wood
who shall find me
104

!
-







-
,

105

my brother the fly

the common housefly
sidling out of darkness into light
fastens on his place in the sun
whets his six legs
revels in his planes his poisers
it is the autumn of his life
he could not serve typhoid and mammon

SERENA II
this clonic earth
see-saw she is blurred in sleep
she is fat half dead the rest is free-wheeling
part the black shag the pelt
is ashen woad
snarl and howl in the wood wake all the birds
hound the harlots out of the ferns
this damfool twilight threshing in the brake
bleating to be bloodied
this crapulent hush
tear its heart out
in her dreams she trembles again
way back in the dark old days panting
in the claws of the Pins in the stress of her hour
the bag writhes she thinks she is dying
the light fails it is time to lie down
Clew Bay vat of xanthic flowers

108

 II

-

-







-

109

Croagh Patrick waned Hindu to spite a pilgrim

she is ready she has lain down above all the islands
of glory
straining now this Sabbath evening of garlands
with a yo-heave-ho of able-bodied swans
out from the doomed land their reefs of tresses
in a hag she drops her young
the whales in Blacksod Bay are dancing
the asphodels come running the flags after
she thinks she is dying she is ashamed
she took me up on to a watershed
whence like the rubrics of a childhood
behold Meath shining through a chink in the hills
posses of larches there is no going back on
a rout of tracks and streams fleeing to the sea
kindergartens of steeples and then the harbour
like a woman making to cover her breasts
and left me
with whatever trust of panic we went out
with so much shall we return
there shall be no loss of panic between a man and
his dog
bitch though he be
sodden packet of Churchman
muzzling the cairn
it is worse than dream

110

-



















111

the light randy slut can't be easy

this clonic earth
all these phantoms shuddering out of focus
it is useless to close the eyes
all the chords of the earth broken like a woman
pianist's
the toads abroad again on their rounds
sidling up to their snares
the fairy-tales of Meath ended
so say your prayers now and go to bed
your prayers before the lamps start to sing behind
the larches
here at these knees of stone
then to bye-bye on the bones

-
-

SERENA III
fix this pothook of beauty on this palette
you never know it might be final
or leave her she is paradise and then
plush hymens on your eyeballs

or on Butt Bridge blush for shame

the mixed declension of those mammae
cock up thy moon thine and thine only
up up up to the star of evening
swoon upon the arch-gasometer
on Misery Hill brand-new carnation
swoon upon the little purple
house of prayer
something heart of Mary
the Bull and Pool Beg that will never meet
not in this world
whereas dart away through the cavorting scapes
bucket o'er Victoria Bridge that's the idea
114

 III

-


-




115

slow down slink down the Ringsend Road

Irishtown Sandymount puzzle find the Hell Fire
the Merrion Flats scored with a thrillion sigmas
Jesus Christ Son of God Saviour His Finger
girls taken strippin that's the idea
on the Bootersgrad breakwind and water
the tide making the dun gulls in a panic
the sands quicken in your hot heart
hide yourself not in the Rock keep on the move
keep on the move

 -





-

MALACODA
thrice he came
the undertaker's man
impassible behind his scutal bowler
to measure
is he not paid to measure
this incorruptible in the vestibule
this malebranca knee-deep in the lilies
Malacoda knee-deep in the lilies
Malacoda for all the expert awe
that felts his perineum mutes his signal
sighing up through the heavy air
must it be it must be it must be
find the weeds engage them in the garden
hear she may see she need not
to coffin
with assistant ungulata
find the weeds engage their attention
hear she must see she need not

118

119

to cover
to be sure cover cover all over
your targe allow me hold your sulphur
divine dogday glass set fair
stay Scarmilion stay stay
lay this Huysum on the box
mind the imago it is he
hear she must see she must
all aboard all souls
half-mast aye aye
nay










! !

DA TAGTE ES
redeem the surrogate goodbyes
the sheet astream in your hand
who have no more for the land
and the glass unmisted above your eyes

122

123

ECHO'S BONES
asylum under my tread all this day
their muffled revels as the flesh falls
breaking without fear or favour wind
the gantelope of sense and nonsense run
taken by the maggots for what they are
1935

124







1935

125

elles viennent
autres et pareilles
avec chacune c'est autre et c'est pareil
avec chacune l'absence d'amour est autre
avec chacune l'absence d'amour est pareille

126

27

 elle l'acte calme

les pores savants le sexe bon enfant
l'attente pas trop lente les regrets pas trop longs
l'absence
au service de la prsence
les quelques haillons d'azur dans la tte les points enfin
morts du coeur
toute la tardive grce d'une pluie cessant
au tomber d'une nuit
d'aot
elle vide
lui pur
d'amour

128

129

tre l sans mchoires sans dents

o s'en va le plaisir de perdre
avec celui peine infrieur
de gagner
et Roscelin et on attend
adverbe oh petit cadeau
vide vide sinon des loques de chanson
mon pre m'a donn un mari
ou en faisant la fleur
qu'elle mouille
tant qu'elle voudra jusqu' l'lgie
des sabots ferrs encore loin des Halles
ou l'eau de la canaille pestant dans les tuyaux
ou plus rien
qu'elle mouille puisque c'est ainsi
parfasse tout le superflu
et vienne
la bouche idiote la main formicante
au bloc cave l'oeil qui coute
de lointains coups de ciseaux argentins

130

131

ASCENSION
travers la mince cloison
ce jour o un enfant
prodigue sa faon
rentra dans sa famille
j'entends la voix
elle est mue elle commente
la coupe du monde de football
toujours trop jeune
en mme temps par la fentre ouverte
par les airs tout court
sourdement
la houle des fidles
son sang gicla avec abondance
sur les draps sur les pois de senteur sur son mec
de ses doigts dgotants il ferma les paupires
sur les grands yeux verts tonns
elle rde lgre
sur ma tombe d'air

132


-

-

133

LA MOUCHE
entre la scne et moi
la vitre
vide sauf elle
ventre terre
sangle dans ses boyaux noirs
antennes affoles ailes lies
pattes crochues bouche suant vide
sabrant l'azur s'crasant contre l'invisible
sous mon pouce impuissant elle fait chavirer
la mer et le ciel serein

134

135

musique de l'indiffrence
coeur temps air feu sable
du silence boulement d'amours
couvre leurs voix et que
je ne m'entende plus
me taire

136

137

bois seul
bouffe brle fornique crve seul comme devant
les absents sont morts les prsents puent
sors tes yeux dtourne-les sur les roseaux
se taquinent-ils ou les as
pas la peine il y a le vent
et l'tat de veille

138

139

ainsi a-t-on beau

par le beau temps et par le mauvais
enferm chez soi enferm chez eux
comme si c'tait d'hier se rappeler le mammouth
le dinothrium les premiers baisers
les priodes glaciaires n'apportant rien de neuf
la grande chaleur du treizime de leur re
sur Lisbonne fumante Kant froidement pench
rver en gnrations de chnes et oublier son pre
ses yeux s'il portait la moustache
s'il tait bon de quoi il est mort
on n'en est pas moins mang sans apptit
par le mauvais temps et par le pire
enferm chez soi enferm chez eux

140











? ?

141

RUE DE VAUGIRARD
mi-hauteur
je dbraye et bant de candeur
expose la plaque aux lumires et aux ombres
puis repars fortifi
d'un ngatif irrcusable

142

143

ARNES DE LUTCE
De l o nous sommes assis plus haut que les gradins
je nous vois entrer du ct de la Rue des Arnes,
hsiter, regarder en l'air, puis pesamment
venir vers nous travers le sable sombre,
de plus en plus laids, aussi laids que les autres,
mais muets. Un petit chien vert
entre en courant du ct de la Rue Monge,
elle s'arrte, elle le suit des yeux,
il traverse l'arne, il disparait
derrire le socle du savant Gabriel de Mortillet.
Elle se retourne, je suis parti, je gravis seul
les marches rustiques, je touche de ma main gauche
la rampe rustique, elle est en bton. Elle hsite,
fait un pas vers la sortie de la Rue Monge, puis me suit.
J'ai un frisson, c'est moi qui me rejoins,
c'est avec d'autres yeux que maintenant je regarde
le sable, les flaques d'eau sous la bruine,
une petite fille tranant derrire elle un cerceau,
un couple, qui sait des amoureux, la main dans la main,
les gradins vides, les hautes maisons, le ciel

144


,
, ,
,
,
, ,
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,
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,
.
, ,
,
, . ,
, .
, ,

, ,
, ,
, ,
, ,

145

qui nous claire trop tard.

Je me retourne, je suis tonn
de trouver l son triste visage.

 .
, ,
.

jusque dans la caverne ciel et sol

et une une les vieilles voix
d'outre-tombe
et lentement la mme lumire
qui sur les plaines d'Enna en longs viols
macrait nagure les capillaires
et les mmes lois
que nagure
et lentement au loin qui teint
Proserpine et Atropos
adorable de vide douteux
encore la bouche d'ombre

148

149

19451949

SAINT-L
Vire will wind in other shadows
unborn through the bright ways tremble
and the old mind ghost-forsaken
sink into its havoc.
1946

150

19451949

-



.
1946

151

ANTIPEPSIS
And the number was uneven
In the green of holy Stephen
Where before the ass the cart
Was harnessed for a foreign part.
In this should not be seen the sign
Of hasard, no, but of design,
For of the two, by common consent,
The cart was the more intelligent.
Whose exceptionally pia
Mater hatched this grand idea
Is not known. He or she,
Smiling, unmolested, free,
By this one act the mind become
A providential vacuum,
Continues still to stroll amok,
To eat, drink, piss, shit, fart and fuck,
Assuming that the fucking season
Did not expire with that of reason.
Now through the city spreads apace
The cry: A thought has taken place!
A human thought! Ochone! Ochone!
Purissima Virgo! We're undone!
Bitched, buggered and bewildered!
Bring forth your dead! Bring forth your dead!

152



-,
,
.
, ,
,

.


. ,
,

,

, , , ,
, ,
.
:
- !
! --!
! !
,
! !

153

bon bon il est un pays

o l'oubli o pse l'oubli
doucement sur les mondes innomms
l la tte on la tait la tte est muette
et on sait non on ne sait rien
le chant des bouches mortes meurt
sur la grve il a fait le voyage
il n'y a rien pleurer
ma solitude je la connais allez je la connais mal
j'ai le temps c'est ce que je me dis j'ai le temps
mais quel temps os affam le temps du chien
du ciel plissant sans cesse mon grain de ciel
du rayon qui grimpe ocell tremblant
des microns des annes tnbres
vous voulez que j'aille d'A je ne peux pas
je ne peux pas sortir je suis dans un pays sans traces
oui oui c'est une belle chose que vous avez l une bien belle chose
qu'est-ce que c'est ne me posez plus de questions
spirale poussire d'instants qu'est-ce que c'est le mme
le calme l'amour la haine le calme le calme

154






















155

MORT DE A. D.
et l tre l encore l
press contre ma vieille planche vrole du noir
des jours et nuits broys aveuglment
tre l ne pas fuir et fuir et tre l
courb vers l'aveu du temps mourant
d'avoir t ce qu'il fut fait ce qu'il fit
de moi de mon ami mort hier l'oeil luisant
les dents longues haletant dans sa barbe dvorant
la vie des saints une vie par jour de vie
revivant dans la nuit ses noirs pchs
mort hier pendant que je vivais
et tre l buvant plus haut que l'orage
la coulpe du temps irrmissible
agripp au vieux bois tmoin des dparts
tmoin des retours

156

 . .

157

vive morte ma seule saison

lis blancs chrysanthmes
nids vifs abandonns
boue des feuilles d'avril
beaux jours gris de givre

158

159

je suis ce cours de sable qui glisse

entre le galet et la dune
la pluie d't pleut sur ma vie
sur moi ma vie qui me fuit me poursuit
et finira le jour de son commencement
cher instant je te vois
dans ce rideau de brume qui recule
o je n'aurai plus fouler ces longs seuils mouvants
et vivrai le temps d'une porte
qui s'ouvre et se referme

160

161

que ferais-je sans ce monde sans visage sans questions

o tre ne dure qu'un instant o chaque instant
verse dans le vide dans l'oubli d'avoir t
sans cette onde o la fin
corps et ombre ensemble s'engloutissent
que ferais-je sans ce silence gouffre des murmures
haletant furieux vers le secours vers l'amour
sans ce ciel qui s'lve
sur la poussire de ses lests
que ferais-je je ferais comme hier comme aujourd'hui
regardant par mon hublot si je ne suis pas seul
errer et virer loin de toute vie
dans un espace pantin
sans voix parmi les voix
enfermes avec moi

162

163

je voudrais que mon amour meure

qu'il pleuve sur le cimetire
et tes ruelles o je vais
pleurant celle qui crut m'aimer

164

165

1953

TAILPIECE
who may tell the tale
oftheoldmari?
weigh absence in a scale?
mete want with a span?
the sum assess
of the world's woes?
nothingness
in words enclose?

166

1953

?
?
?

?

167

19621964

SONG
Age is when to a man
Huddled o'er the ingle
Shivering for the hag
To put the pan in the bed
And bring the toddy
She comes in the ashes
Who loved could not be won
Or won not loved
Or some other trouble
Comes in the ashes
Like in that old light
The face in the ashes
That old starlight
On the earth again.
1962

168

19621964

,
,
,

,
-,
, ,
, ,

-,

-,

.
1962

169

THE DOWNS
the downs
summer days on the downs
hand in hand
one loving
one loved
back at night
the hut
no thought
thoughtless on
under the sun
hand in hand
one loving
the other loved
thoughtless back
night
on till the cliff
the edge
hand in hand
gazing down
the foam
170

171

no further
the edge
the foam
no speech
speechless on
under the sun
hand in hand
till the edge
speechless back
the hut
night
the bridge
winter night
wind
snow
gazing down
the flood
foaming on
black flood foaming on
no thought
gazing down
meaningless flood
foaming on
winter night
wind
snow
no meaning

172

173

light
from the banks
lamplight
to light the foam
the snow
faintly lit
the foam
the snow

19741979

POEME 1974
hors crne seul dedans
quelque part quelquefois
comme quelque chose
crne abri dernier
pris dans le dehors
tel Bocca dans la glace
l'il l'alarme infime
s'ouvre be se rescelle
n'y ayant plus rien
ainsi quelquefois
comme quelque chose
de la vie pas forcment
1974

176

19741979

1974

-
-







-

1974

177

SOMETHING THERE
something there
where
out there
out where
outside
what
the head what else
something there somewhere outside
the head
at the faint sound so brief
it is gone and the whole globe
not yet bare
the eye
opens wide
wide
till in the end
nothing more
shutters; it again
so the odd time
out there
178

-
-

-
- -

179

somewhere out there

like as if
as if
something
not life
necessarily
1974

-


-

1974

DREAD NAY
head fast
in out as dead
till rending
long still
faint stir
unseal the eye
till still again
seal again
head sphere
ashen smooth
one eye
no hint when to
then glare
cyclop no
one side
eerily
on face
of out spread
vast in
the highmost
182

183

snow white
sheeting all
asylum head
sole blot
faster than where
in hellice eyes
stream till
frozen to
jaws rail
gnaw gnash
teeth with stork
clack chatter
come through
no sense and gone
while eye
shocked wide
with white
still to bare
stir dread
nay to nought
sudden in
ashen smooth
aghast
glittering rent
till sudden
smooth again
stir so past
never been

184

-






185

at ray
in latibule
long dark
stir of dread
till breach
long sealed
dark again
still again
so ere
long still
long nought
rent so
so stir
long past
head fast
in out as dead
1974

1974

ROUNDELAY
on all that strand
at end of day
steps sole sound
long sole sound
until unbidden stay
then no sound
on all that strand
long no sound
until unbidden go
steps sole sound
long sole sound
on all that strand
at end of day
1976

188















1976

189

THITHER
thither
a far cry
for one
so little
fair daffodils
march then
then there
then there
then thence
daffodils
again
march then
again
a far cry
again
for one
so little
1976

190

1976

91

MIRLITONNADES

en face
le pire
jusqu' ce
qu'il fasse rire

rentrer
la nuit
au logis
allumer
teindre voir
la nuit voir
coll la vitre
le visage

somme toute
tout compte fait
un quart de milliasse
de quarts d'heure
sans compter
les temps morts

192

-



:

.
193

fin fond du nant

au bout de quelle guette
l'oeil crut entrevoir
remuer faiblement
la tte le calma disant
ce ne fut que dans ta tte

silence tel que ce qui fut

avant jamais ne sera plus
par le murmure dchir
d'une parole sans pass
d'avoir trop dit n'en pouvant plus
jurant de ne se taire plus
*
coute-les
s'ajouter
les mots
aux mots
sans mot
les pas
aux pas
un
un

194

*


,

195

lueurs lisires
de la navette
plus qu'un pas s'teignent
demi-tour remiroitent
halte plutt
loin des deux
chez soi sans soi
ni eux

imagine si ceci
un jour ceci
un beau jour
imagine
si un jour
un beau jour ceci
cessait
imagine

196

197

d'abord
plat sur du dur
la droite
ou la gauche
n'importe
ensuite
plat sur la droite
ou la gauche
la gauche
ou la droite
enfin
plat sur la gauche
ou la droite
n'importe
sur le tout
la tte

flux cause
que toute chose
tout en tant
toute chose
donc celle-l
mme celle-l
tout en tant
n'est pas
parlons-en

198

199

samedi rpit
plus rire
depuis minuit
jusqu' minuit
plus pleurer

chaque jour envie

d'tre un jour en vie
non certes sans regret
un jour d'tre n

nuit qui fais tant

implorer l'aube
nuit de grce
tombe

rien nul
n'aura t
pour rien
tant t
rien
nul

200

201

 peine bien men

le dernier pas le pied
repose en attendant
comme le veut l'usage
que l'autre en fasse autant
comme le veut l'usage
et porte ainsi le faix
encore de l'avant
comme le veut l'usage
enfin jusqu' prsent

ce qu'ont les yeux

mal vu de bien
les doigts lasss
de bien filer
serre-les bien
les doigts les yeux
le bien revient
en mieux

ce qu'a de pis
le cur connu
la tte pu
de pis se dire
fais-les
ressusciter
le pis revient
en pire
202

203

ne manquez pas Tanger

le cimetire Saint-Andr
morts sous un fouillis
de fleurs surensevelis
banc la mmoire
d'Arthur Keyser
de cur avec lui
restes dessus assis

plus loin un autre commmore

Caroline Hay Taylor
fidle sa philosophie
qu'espoir il y a tant qu'il y a vie
d'Irlande elle s'enfuit aux cieux
en aot mil neuf cent trente-deux

ne manquez pas Stuttgart

la longue Rue Neckar
du nant l attrait
n'est plus ce qu'il tait
tant le soupon est fort
d'y tre dj et d'ores

204

205

*
vieil aller
vieux arrts
aller
absent
absent
arrter

fous qui disiez

plus jamais
vite
redites

pas pas
nulle part
nul seul
ne sait comment
petits pas
nulle part
obstinment
*
rve
sans fin
ni trve
rien

206

207

morte parmi
ses mouches mortes
un souffle coulis
berce l'araigne
*
d'o
la voix qui dit
vis
d'une autre vie

mots survivants
de la vie
encore un moment
tenez-lui compagnie
fleuves et ocans
l'ont laiss pour vivant
au ru de Courtablon
prs la Mare-Chaudron

de pied ferme
tout en n'attendant plus
il se passe devant
allant sans but

208

209

*
sitt sorti de l'ermitage
ce fut le calme aprs l'orage

l'instant de s'entendre dire

ne plus en avoir pour longtemps
la vie lui enfin sourire
se mit de toutes ses dents

la nuit venue o l'me allait

enfin lui tre rclame
voil-t-il pas qu'incontinent
il la rendit une heure avant

pas davantage
de souvenirs qu' l'ge
d'avril un jour
d'un jour

son ombre une nuit

lui reparut
s'allongea plit
se dissolut

210

211

noire sur
qui es aux enfers
tort tranchant
et travers
qu'est-ce que tu attends

comme au
berceau
toute parole mue
comme au
berceau
folie nouveau mine
*
c'est l'heure
du voir
le cur
parti

bout de songes un bouquin

au gte dire adieu astreint
de chasse lasse ft exprs
d'oublier le chandelier

212

213

le nain nonagnaire
dans un dernier murmure
de grce au moins une bire
grandeur nature

ne verra t'il jamais

finir la nuit
o l'me lui
sera rclame

qu' lever la tte

c'est la beaut
qu' la lever
qu' la
lever

par une faille dans l'inexistence

s'infiltrent des miasmes d'oxygne
dans le silence du pseudo-silence
dans l pnombre pur bonheur peine
lui
son ge
lui faire a lui
sacr canal
lacrymal

one dead of night

in the dead still
he looked up
from his book
from that dark
to pore on other dark
till afar
taper faint
the eyes
in the dead still
till afar
his book as by
a hand not his
a hand on his
faintly closed
for good or ill
for good and ill
Stuttgart
26.6.1977

216

26.6.1977

217

19871989

BRIEF DREAM
go end there
one fine day
where never till then
till as much as to say
no matter where
no matter when

218

19871989

219

Go where never before

No sooner there than there always
No matter where never before
No sooner there than there always

220

221

COMMENT DIRE
folie
folie que de
que de
comment dire
folie que de ce
depuis
folie depuis ce
donn
folie donn ce que de
vu
folie vu ce
ce
comment dire
ceci
ce ceci
ceci-ci
tout ce ceci-ci
folie donn tout ce
vu
folie vu tout ce ceci-ci que de
que de
comment dire
voir
entrevoir
croire entrevoir
222

223

vouloir croire entrevoir

folie que de vouloir croire entrevoir quoi
quoi
comment dire
et o
que de vouloir croire entrevoir quoi o
o
comment dire
l
l-bas
loin
loin l l-bas
peine
loin l l-bas peine quoi
quoi
comment dire
vu tout ceci
tout ce ceci-ci
folie que de voir quoi
entrevoir
croire entrevoir
vouloir croire entrevoir
loin l l-bas peine quoi
folie que d'y vouloir croire entrevoir quoi quoi
comment dire
comment dire
29.10.1988




























29.10.1988

 ...
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. Samuel Beckett, Poems 19301989 (Calder
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and Critic (Princeton University Press, 1970), Ruby Cohn, A Beckett
Canon (University of Michigan Press, 2001), J. Ackerley and S. E.
Gontarski, The Grove Companion to Samuel Beckett (Grove Press,
2004). ,
,
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229

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257


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they come
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1937 1939
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258

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261

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my way is in the sand flowing
between the shingle and the dune
the summer rain rains on my life
on me my life harrying fleeing
to its beginning to its end
my peace is there in the receding mist
when I may cease from treading these long shifting thresholds
and live the space of a door
that opens and shuts
...
1948 . - (
1948 .). :
what would I do without this world faceless incurious
where to be lasts but an instant where every instant
spills in the void the ignorance of having been
without this wave where in the end
body and shadow together are engulfed
what would I do without this silence where the murmurs die
the pantings the frenzies towards succour towards love
without this sky that soars
262

above its ballast dust

what would I do what I did yesterday and the day before
peering out of my deadlight looking for another
wandering like me eddying far from all the living
in a convulsive space
among the voices voiceless
that throng my hiddenness
...
1948 . - (
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I would like my love to die
and the rain to be raining on the graveyard
and on me walking the streets
mourning her who thought she loved me
1953

(1953). , , .

263

19621964

(19611962).
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266

19871989

1989 . (2002).
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1989 .
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, 1988
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What Is the Word
folly
folly for to
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folly from this
all this
folly from all this
given
folly given all this
seeing
folly seeing all this
this what is the word
267

this this
this this here
all this this here
folly given all this
seeing
folly seeing all this this here
for to
what is the word
see
glimpse
seem to glimpse
need to seem to glimpse
folly for to need to seem to glimpse
what
what is the word
and where
folly for to need to seem to glimpse what where where
what is the word
there
over there
away over there
afar
afar away over there
afaint
afaint afar away over there what
what
what is the word
seeing all this
all this this
all this this here
folly for to see what
glimpse
seem to glimpse
need to seem to glimpse
afaint afar away over there what
268

folly for to need to seem to glimpse afaint

afar away over there what
what
what is the word
what is the word

 821.111
84(4)
42

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ISBN 978-5-7516-0861-3
Samuel Beckett. Poems 19301989
First published in 2002 by Calder Publications Ltd., London
Copyright 2002 Samuel Beckett Estate
, ,
, 2010

1930-1989
SAMUEL BECKETT

POEMS
1930-1989

. .

. .
..
..

42

.
19301989 / ; .
. . . . ;
. . ., . . .
.: , 2010. - 269, [3] .
ISBN 978-5-7516-0861-3

-
1930 1989

XX
. , , , , , ,
,
, , ,
.
.
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